smart preparation is key to success - Barefoot coach !!

18-year-old Indian prodigy Gukesh Dommaraju became  the new FIDE World Champion,  the youngest ever in history.

 

1.    Can you identify this person standing with Gukesh  ?

2.  How did Indian cricket react after the abrupt resignation of Greg Chappell, the elegant Aussie batsman and the famously opinionated coach with a king-sized ego who failed?

3.    How do you connect Chess Champion with India’s WC 2011 victory and

4.    do you prepare long hours before an exam foregoing sleep !! 

The book  ‘Barefoot Coach’ is recommended as  packed with out-of-the-box thinking and illuminating anecdotes on winning, preparation, failure and working to resolve life’s tangled knots. Inspiring, candid and unusual in its approach to coaching, and with fascinating breakaways into extreme sport, this is a must read for everyone who wishes to enhance their performance, and their lives !!  - what is this about ? 

He cut short his aspirations of becoming a Cricketer after a couple of first class games in South Africa.  After completing a master's degree in Sport Science and at age 25, Upton cut his playing-career short to take up the full-time position of Strength and conditioning Coach for the South African cricket team, from 1994 to 1998. He was also involved as a key strategist with the team coach Bob Woolmer and then-captain Hansie Cronje. In 1999 he changed codes to rugby, spend a year working as Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Western Province Vodacom Cup rugby team. 

This amazing man has degrees from four different universities, including two master's degrees. In 2017 he was appoint as Professor of Practice at Deakin University school of Business and Law (Melbourne, Australia). His degrees include;

•        BSc (Human Movement Sciences), Stellenbosch University

•        B.A Hons (Biokinetics), University of Port Elizabeth. (Including distinction for Sport Psychology major)

•        MSc (Medical – Sport Science), University of Cape Town. (Thesis: Prevention of Schoolboy Rugby Injuries)

•        M.A. (Professional Development – Coaching), Middlesex University (with distinction). (Thesis: Assessing professional cricket coaching (with distinction))  

He is globally famous as Mental conditioning coach !!  With a sport psychology major, and a second master's degree (in Business Coaching), Upton redefined his career to begin work as Mental Conditioning coach (in sport) and Executive Coach (in Business) in 2003. He has since worked as Mental Coach and/or Performance Consultant to over 20 professional cricket, rugby, soccer and field hockey teams across South Africa, India and Australia. He has also served as personal Mental Coach to over 100 professional athletes from 11 different sports, and across five continents, including cricket, rugby, soccer, golf, tennis, swimming and World Tour surfing.    

Paddy Upton was  Gukesh Dommaraju's mental conditioning coach for the World Chess Championship 2024 against Ding Liren,  for six months. 

In his words, Sleep deprivation is often a silent productivity killer. While high-performance teams are known for pushing boundaries and meeting tight deadlines, the effects of poor sleep can sabotage even the best efforts. Lack of sleep doesn’t just lead to fatigue—it impairs decision-making, increases risk-taking behaviour, and causes irritability, low moods, anxiety and depression. Creativity is reduced, mistakes become more frequent, and projects take longer to complete. Compromised sleep also leads to poor nutrition choices and lack of motivation to exercise. 

Patrick Anthony Howard 'Paddy' Upton is a South African born cricket coach specialising as head coach in professional Twenty20 cricket, mental coach to professional athletes, sports scientist executive coach and professor of practice at Deakin University. He attained his master's degree in sports science at University of Cape Town. 

He was  performance director of the South Africa Cricket Team (Proteas) from 2011 to 2014, during which time they became the first team to simultaneously hold the ICC  world number 1 ranking in all three formats of the international game. Between 2012 and 2018, Upton has been head coach in 12 professional T20 cricket seasons, for five different teams across three tournaments, including the Indian Premier League, Australian Big Bash League and the Pakistan Super League.  He was  the mental conditioning coach for the Indian Men's Hockey Team participating in the Paris Olympics 2024. 

Here’s a thought of his to carry forward: Success isn’t just about effort—it’s about aligning with what matters most and creating flow with the people around you.  Pressure isn’t the villain it’s often made out to be. Instead, it’s a mirror—a chance to see how we truly show up when it matters most. The  truth: pressure doesn’t undermine performance. It’s our response to it—the degree to which we let it distract our attention away from the task at hand—that matters.  Thriving under pressure isn’t about having nerves of steel. It’s about staying present and focused on the task at hand. Do you lock into the moment, or does your mind drift to what happens if you win—or fail? 

Getting back to those Qs at the start – after Greg Chappel fiasco, came Gary Kirsten, the reticent South African with an ugly batting style and no coaching experience. After Chappell’s restless radicalism — in the late Peter Roebuck’s words — Indian cricket wanted peace, a gush of cold water on their burnt fingers. Sachin Tendulkar, in his first meeting with the new coach,  reportedly  made a very humane request: “Gary, I want you to be my friend.” Still recovering from the insecurity epidemic of the Chappell era, the Indian dressing room longed for a warm hug.

 

Kirsten knew that, he was prepared. He brought along with him his affable friend Paddy Upton, a fitness trainer with a PhD in sports science, a lifelong student of philosophy and spirituality, leadership coach, mind guru, passionate surfer; while a social worker, Upton was almost stabbed while reforming Cape Town’s street kids and backpacked without shoes for six months while discovering Southeast Asia by himself. By the time he left India, after almost three years, he would also be a World Cup winner. He would find mention in the credits that rolled after that magical April 2, 2011 at Wankhede.  ‘the barefoot coach’ is a book written by Paddy Upton, Team India’s mental conditioning coach.  

Mental coaching is a broad term used to describe consultants who use a psycho-educational model to develop the mental/psychological aspects of performance achievement.  Interesting ! are the ways successful people train themselves – it is not simply hardwork, but hardwork aligned with lot of smart techniques.

 
Regards – S Sampathkumar
14.12.2024